Blue Hawaii

Kathy Merrill Shares Her Hometown Sources in Honolulu

Even though Hawaii has become celebrated for tasteful vacation homes and tropical retreats, Honolulu still doesn’t get the respect it deserves. There’s the stale joke about the best meal in the city being the one served on the plane over from the mainland. There are those hula dolls purchased by tourists to confirm their notions of local décor. And there are indelible surfing images of Elvis and Gidget at Waikiki that launched, like little ships, a past generation’s fleet of private dreams. “Now, the food is fabulous,” says Kathy Merrill, an interior designer with the Honolulu-based firm Philpotts & Associates. “And anyone with a serious interest in Pacific Rim design—Asian antiques, rattan, wood—can find anything here.” As for the rest, Merrill happily pleads guilty: Her parents were California surfers who followed the big waves to Hawaii, and she herself once played a bit role in a Presley movie.

In fact, some of Merrill’s best clients are Hollywood denizens with second and third homes on Maui or Lanai. “They tell me they want comfortable Hawaiian-style living, which to me necessarily means Pacific Rim,” she says. So she regularly inspects a half-dozen quality sources, with clients in tow if they have the time or inclination.

Island Lifestyle, a treasure trove of Chinese and Southeast Asian art and furnishings, is near the top of her list. “When they say it’s antique, you can believe them,” says Merrill. “And they take care in their restorations.” This time she inspects a Javanese teak gebyok doorway that might be just right for the entrance of a house she’s decorating on Maui. Equally impressive is a set of century-old Chinese doors from Jiangsu province that have been converted into a six-panel room divider.

Merrill also looks for Chinese antiques at Pacific Orient Traders, housed in a cavernous former factory. “Color is what sets the mood when you step into the shop,” says Merrill. There are chests in turquoise and gold, “shoe box” containers (once used to store grain) in assorted green and red tones and Qing Dynasty puppets wearing their original multihued costumes. Merrill often purchases 19th-century Chinese wedding chests. “My clients television sets—even large flat screens can fit behind these doors,” she says, looking over a couple of five-foot-tall chests. “These two have a beautifully worn patina of lacquered wood.”

For smaller Chinese objects, she heads for China Bazaar, located in a shopping zone that used to be the Dole cannery. China Bazaar has “a terrific selection of ceramics,” she notes, looking over two 19th-century green- and black-glazed urns. She tries out a stiff-backed, 18th-century elmwood chair. “It may not look it, but the center spine makes it soooo comfortable,” she sighs. Merrill then glances at an 1847 banner written in Chinese characters that praises a woman as a good wife and mother. “It would go nicely as a headboard,” she says. “Although I’d buy it more for the beauty than the message.”

For Hawaiian objects and handcrafted furniture, Merrill’s first choice is Martin & MacArthur. “I’ll come across older artifacts, such as this koa-wood weapon with embedded sharks’ teeth,” she says, “but they also have wonderful bowls made from exotic woods like kou, sandalwood, macadamia, mango wood.” Merrill’s eye is discerning enough to get her invited to help judge an annual show for Honolulu’s leading woodwork artisans. Items from Martin & MacArthur have been entered in past shows.

Heading south to Waikiki, Merrill visits The Mirror Store, where the mirrors are copper-free and the frames, in materials like bamboo finish and giltwood, are of a quality suitable for fine paintings. “Just look at this teak frame—it’s good enough for a masterpiece,” says the designer, picking out a sample. “I enjoy framing mirrors for my clients instead of running a mirror wall-to-wall.”

Garakuta-Do, also in Waikiki, is Merrill’s favorite source for Japanese antiques—tansu, Imari and Noritake porcelain, lacquer boxes—and Japanese wood-block prints and folk art. “Entering this phenomenal store is like stepping back into Old Japan,” says the designer. She frequently purchases bronze and porcelain hibachis to use as planters, and kimono fabrics to encase throw pillows.

“The owner is very serious about the quality of his objects,” Merrill points out. Though she also appreciates his self-deprecatory humor, typical of an old Hawaii hand. She adds, “Garakuta-Do translates roughly as, ‘One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.’”